Reviews

District 9, the searing debut feature of South African director Neill Blomkamp, is a summer flick of a rare breed: it's a science fiction movie with depth and provocative ideas that also leaves space for violence and action. With heavyweight New Zealand moviemaker Peter Jackson serving as producer, this excellent low-budget sci-fi actioner... read more

The «District 9» is a pleasant cinematic surprise this year because it deals with a subject and chilioeipomeno paraftharmeno, gives it new life by adding what was missing all these years: realism. Using documentary technique and cool colors throughout your film creates a sense of what actually happens to see another side of the planet and you're stuck in your easy chair to watch the internationa... read more

Aliens land in South Africa and have no way home. Years later after living in a slum and wearing out their welcome the "Non-Humans" are being moved to a new tent city overseen by Multi-National United. The movie follows an MNU employee tasked with leading the relocation and his relationship with one of the alien leaders.

“I wasn't a fan of this film when it first came out, I must admit after three or four viewings I have quite grown to like it. It's an action movie, and for all intents and purposes an intelligent one, but don't expect a ton of depth in terms of character development or symbolism.

The plot is pretty simple- a colony of about 1.5 million bug-like aliens have their ship break down on them above Johannesburg. After several months of the ship just, well, hovering there, a team of people get inside the ship and find that the aliens are agitated, starving, and living in their own filth.

The 'colonization' of the aliens goes pretty much exactly the way I thought it would in reality- no laser beams, no probing, just good ol'-fashioned oppression and humans sticking their noses wh” read more

“This film was excellent. Yes, action, yes stuff going bang/splat and so forth but for me the brilliance was in the incisive social commentary, about which a book could be written. Despite the simplicity of the plot and the predictable chain of events the attention to detail and documentary filming style with multiple fast-cuts was appealing if sometimes overwhelming.

The weapons implication of metamorphosis was predictable as was the callous disregard for life that MNU subsequently showed but it is still a disturbing metaphor that is all the more powerful because it is entirely plausible. The plot was far from perfect - I winced at the obvious stupidity of Wikus taking a cell-phone when it was certain he'd be tracked by it - but in a high-pressure situation even cool heads make m” read more